SKOLEN FOR MUR OG RUM

Professor Nils Norman



The School of Walls and Space investigates contemporary notions of space, its production, privatization and the role of the artist as a critical and political agent within it, and uses both traditional and more experimental pedagogical methods.

The School is a multi-layered micro-institution that encourages the development of an inter-disciplinary research-based practice. It balances individual mentoring with collective group activities. The school uses traditional pedagogical methods: group and one-to-one crits, seminars and talks, in conjunction with the exploration of more experimental collaborative teaching models which the School researches and develops collectively as a group. These include brain storming techniques, games, charettes, group activities, actions and happenings. It also explores historical practices, such as psychogeography and the derive, and the experimental teaching methods of Paolo Freire, Roy Ascott, Paul Goodman, and Colin Ward, amongst others. Academic groundwork in the history and theory of the emergence and production of public space is developed through a series of readings, lectures and seminars. Field-trips, tours, walks and excursions are an integral component of the School’s activities, using a ‘School Without Walls’ methodology where the spaces, zones and ecologies of the city become the classroom – parks, squares, plazas, ecological experiments, collective farms, housing projects, cooperatives, public artworks and other interesting or problematic urban planning developments. International cities and towns are considered as potential sites of investigation. Parallel to these activities – issues and topics related to the public sphere and public art are discussed. A specific issue or theme is chosen by the group to be researched, discussed and developed into a final project each year. These include more focused workshops over a period of a few days with invited participants; individual guest visits, reading groups and projects. Also related to each project is the development of a reading list, a library, archive, and film events. 


Networks are developed with other schools in the Academy as well as with local, national and international university departments and art schools. Close links with visiting artists, architects, urban planners, landscape architects, curators and scientists are developed.

The School has an ongoing Permaculture design course led by Poul Erik Pedersen (Landskabarkitekt, mdl).


Past and ongoing themes include Permaculture and the City, Politics and Art,
Culture and Gentrification.

Guests to the School include, Emma Hedditch, Brian Holmes, Lasse Lau, Julie Ault, Luca Frei, John Jordan, Mikkel Bolt and Jakob Jakobsen, Melanie Gilligan, Lize Mogel, Gitte Villesen, and the Learning Site.